Originally Posted By Darkbeer Disney's Kingdom Giving Off Alot Less Magic - Seeing Alpha, 8/3/06 >>Shocked at Disney's teething pains in Hong Kong, I decided to take advantage of a planned family vacation to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando to conduct a bit of research to see if the home country was still running well. I figured, if Orlando is still good, then Disney still has a chance to right itself in Hong Kong and its low stock price could be a tempting purchase. I have very fond memories of Disney World from my 2 trips there -- once with my parents when I was a kid and once 6 years ago when my wife and I had just started dating. (In fact, our trip to Disney was our first trip away together and confirmed for both of us that we were in a serious relationship.) Although we would be going to Disney in sweltering July, I was excited to go and figured that Florida in July would not be as intolerable as Shanghai in August.<< >>Service This is where I was most upset. The service at the parks, in the resorts, and in the transportation most notably were awful. I cannot believe the number of rude and downright truculent Disney cast members I ran into. I will give an example that gets my neck red to this day. Several members of my party from China do not speak any English as I imagine many of Disney's guests don't. We were taking a boat ride from downtown Disney back to our resort when one member of our party stood up on the shuttle boat to take pictures. The captain of the boat had earlier announced that passengers had to remain seated at all times for safety purposes. Unfortunately, the person in my party did not understand. As soon as I saw him stand up, I told him he had to sit, which he did immediately. But the Captain literally went bonkers like the demon in Fantasia. He started screaming and glaring at him and waving his arms as if the person in my party was an idiot. It certainly was not good-natured fun. I said, "The guy does not speak English. He is from China. As soon as we told him he had to sit, he sat. You don't need to keep going on." The Captain kept yelling and flapping his arms, so I said "There really is no need to be rude and make a scene. He did not understand your announcement." The Captain then started screaming at me. He stopped the boat for and yelled, "You wanna get off my boat. I am the only captain here. You want to get off my boat!" I was really shocked at the Captain's behavior. When I called twice to complain to the guest relations number, no real apology was given to me, and I did not see a resolution to the problem. More disconcerting was that I found that the Captain's behavior was similar to the boorish behavior I ran into several times from cast members. Grade: F- Until Disney revamps its customer service again, I will not go back to Disney. We ran into really bad service several times. There also seemed to be a big difference with older cast members and young ones -- the older ones seemed to have been at Disney longer and did a fabulous job while the young ones seemed uninterested in their jobs and were just going through the motions.<< >>After CMR's surveys on Hong Disney and my own experience in Orlando, it pains me to say this, as I have always been a big lover of Disney, but Disney is not a place retail investors should place their money nor should lovers of Disney visit the parks until there is a major overhaul. Bad service, poorly laid out parks and old attractions indicate bad management to me which is my first point of analyzing companies. I do not see Disney coming out with good numbers anytime soon. Quite a few people in Orlando told me that they were unhappy with their experience this year -- this does not bode well for repeat business. On the good side, Disney still has a magical brand name. If it can implement better management and training, then it would be a great stock to buy. I am keeping my eyes closely on Disney's team which has had turnover in Hong Kong. If it improves a bit, then Disney stock would be great.<<
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Excuse me for being the dobting Thomas that I am but I am having a hard time taking this guy seriously. I can see the standing up on the boat thing. But he doesn't come up with any tangible explaination for his rather jaded viewpoint. I may have some complaints about Cast Member service. But I have NEVER told anyone not to purchase Disney stock OR NEVER to visit a Disney park. This guy is way overline. What might be helpful is if he could give us an example of something positive during his visit to WDW. Instead we get a jaded letter.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I think when someone tells others not to buy stock OR visit Disney theme parks then thats crossing a line.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Knowing the source where this was published would be good to know too. I never give credence to ANYTHING if I don't know the source.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I believe it is from something called "Seeing Alpha". It's at the top of the post. I like how the author complains about the old at tractions and poorly laid out parks. Has he (I assume it's a he) ever been to a non-Disney park? Disney's layouts, although some have some weak sections, are the best that I have ever seen for crowd flow, accessability, and theming. And even the "old" rides still blow most rides built in the last 10 years out of the water. And the oldest any ride there is 35 years. He should really go to DL and start explaining how dinosaurs like the 50 year old Jungle Cruise don't need to exist. He should also visit some other old parks (like Kennywood and Blackpool Pleasure Beach) and see how their old rides are standing up with the test of time. I would guess that the old ones are the ones that have withstood thetest of time and crowds. I don't see any old attractions like Test Track or Mission:Space. Clearly this is somebody who has far more problems than his trip to Disney World.
Originally Posted By irishfan >>Knowing the source where this was published would be good to know too. I never give credence to ANYTHING if I don't know the source.<< I was thinkng the same thing myself.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Having been disrespected with the same downright rude manner by a Winnie the Pooh Ride (newyorican) CM some time ago (ask G-Fan who was with me), I can believe what this guy says. That is the kind of garbage they hire now just to fill positions across the property. Gosh I miss the days when WDW was only 2 parks and 7 hotels.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I believe it is from something called "Seeing Alpha". It's at the top of the post.>> Thanks. I guess I'm not familiar with that publication or blog... whatever it is.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Sorry, I forgot the link.... <a href="http://media.seekingalpha.com/article/14962" target="_blank">http://media.seekingalpha.com/ article/14962</a> <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/about" target="_blank">http://seekingalpha.com/about</a> >>'Alpha' is used by academics to refer to a stock's performance relative to the market, and by fund managers to refer to 'beating the market'. Every stock picker is therefore 'Seeking Alpha'. Seeking Alpha's goal is to be the best resource on the Internet for opinion and analysis about stocks. Our team selects the most interesting articles from about 200 contributors, edits them to guarantee quality, and arranges them by sector, theme and stock ticker. Then we add our own work to make Seeking Alpha a one-stop-shop for stock research: annotated summaries of the Wall Street Journal and Barron's, conference call transcripts, daily summaries of Jim Cramer's stock picks, comprehensive coverage of new IPO filings, an earnings calendar and pre-market briefing, and charts showing stocks' comparative performance and valuation. Seeking Alpha has a strong readership among money managers, research analysts, investment bankers, and serious individual investors.<< >>Seeking Alpha has since grown to be the top destination for stock market opinion and analysis on the Internet, and is widely read by finance professionals and serious individual investors. Seeking Alpha has grown into a fully fledged company with professional editors and web developers. <<
Originally Posted By vbdad55 too much of a mood swing for me as far as a stock purchase recommendation -- how can one be basically a 'sell' yet with as they put it a little improvement go all the way to great and a 'buy' it should take more than a little tomake that wide a swing...too much emotion in this pitch to be my stock investment guide. Now that being said, stock performance over the last 7 years, far poorer than S&P, but I am still not selling...
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Reading through it a few times leads me to believe the author is or claims to be some kind of financial analyst with a dangerous(ly small) amount of Disney knowledge. I can believe his CM horror story. As for his stock analysis: "Bad service, poorly laid out parks and old attractions indicate bad management to me which is my first point of analyzing companies. I do not see Disney coming out with good numbers anytime soon." I'll spot him on the bad service, but his other two points? he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I'll spot him on the bad service, but his other two points? he doesn't know what he's talking about.>> Yes, it sounds like he would be happiest if Disney tore out all the vintage attractions in Fantasyland and replaced them with steel coasters. He just doesn't get it.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>Yes, it sounds like he would be happiest if Disney tore out all the vintage attractions in Fantasyland and replaced them with steel coasters. He just doesn't get it.<< I know other people who feel that vintage attractions stand in the way of progress. That it was o.k. to remove a attraction that saw more daily riders than Snow White for an expensive motion simulator that can cause guests problems. As much as I think the article was worthless; I do believe the author's taste towards what makes a good attraction is as poor as anybody else.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom His biggest complaint ( and most decriptive coplaint ) was a short boat ride. How dumb. Considering what Cast Members have to go through on a daily basis related to nosey guests ( cough, cough, DVC Dad, Cough>. I can see a CM taking this very seriously.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Kennesaw Tom, there is no excuse for the type of behavior described on that boat trip -- I don't care if it's a 30 second ride. How many guests show up at Walt Disney World who don't speak or understand English? Lots. That boat driver sounds like a complete jerk. 'You want to get off my boat?' he says? You want to kiss my lily white patootie? I would have told him.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom IF that is what happened. We have only heard one side to that story in a rather opinionate post. Where the writer advising everyone to stay away from ALL Disney Theme Parks and not to buy stock. How credible is that? I'm just going to have to say: Prove it!
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Reminds me of the ferry ride I took accross Lake Champlian from NY to VT four weeks ago. The two occupants of one car got out and immediately started smoking. The skipper asked them not to smoke and the two occupants went beserk at him. Da... your on a diesel fueled boat in the middle of Lake Champlian. I asked the skipper if he wanted me to beat them up. He laughed and said "no, thats OK". I noticed when all the cars disembared the Captain of the Ferry walked over and talked with these two obnoxious people. Maybe Disney need to post more Cast Members on their boats so they can "police" each other. I certainly wouldn't give much credance to what some of the guests say.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Prove it? With what? Photographs? A written Testimonial from the 'Captain of the boat'? Perhaps having working at the Resort I know that not all cast members are angels and that many of them would do exactly what 'the captain' did. There were many ways to handle the Chinese tourist who doesn't speak English. I would say that 'the captain' didn't do so well in this incident.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I just think this writer is VERY opinionated. In my book has hasn't given me any reason to believe what he is telling is the true. I take the boats between DTD and POR ( there are only three resorts with boat access to DTD ). I have never EVER had one of the boat CM's do anything like that. And those patoon boats they use for POR do tilt some. The last time I took one to DTD. The captain actually asked a few people get up and sit on the opposite side to even up the load.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>In my book has hasn't given me any reason to believe what he is telling is the true.<< Well, in *my* book, I have witnessed similar incidents TWICE, and in one of those... I WAS THE VICTIM. So yes. I am here to tell you ... some CMs do go berseck on the job with guests. Mercily, it only happens extremely infrequently but all it takes is one time for such incidents to create a poor sense of service whihc reflects in the entire operation. Sad because there are some great people who truly deserve to be "Disney CMs". But some simply DO NOT.
